Stow Away
I’m preparing to make a cross-town move, and once again I’m shocked at the sheer amount of JUNK that has been accumulated in my apartment. In an effort to ease the transition, I’ve rented one of those self-storage lockers. Maybe I’m easily impressed, but there’s something surreal about the self-storage environment.
Not only is it made up of nothing but right angles and straight lines, it’s also amusing and slightly creepy in that one has NO IDEA what is contained in any container but your own (if you even remember that.) For instance, I’ve seen enough Law & Order to automatically assume that most of them contain evidence of violent crimes. Every couple of trips, I’ll get a quick glimpse into another person’s unit, and it’s like the most passive yet baffling form of voyeurism.
“Why doesn’t that person keep that perfectly good bike at home?” I wonder. Or “how could one person have possibly acquired so many baskets and picture frames?”
I prefer to think of these containers as full of lost treasures, like the mysterious warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But I know the reality is probably dull and disappointing, full of dusty, forgotten relics- more, then, like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Tags: Archaeology, Junk, Storage